From: Michele Ben <benfam@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: pronunciation Great ideas! During one of the first lessons at the beginning of the year I always spend time taliking about the difference between ship and sheep. This little chat always follows the hysterics when I tell the kids to get out a *sheet* of paper, or when I had out a worksheet. MIchele Bari Nirenberg wrote: > To demonstrate the variety of vowel sounds in English, I will > occasionally write the following words on the board (generally in a > good class). Note that a few of them get giggles. > > sax > sakes > sex > seeks > six > sikes > socks > soaks > sucks > > The following list might work even better (more sounds and fewer > giggles): > > bat > bait > bet > beat > bit > bite > bot > boat > but > boot > beaut > bout > bought > > This is normally something I do on the spur of the moment when kids > start mispronouncing words, but I'm sure it's possible to make a > lesson out of this. My students are always amazed that no two of the > words on the list are pronounced alike and they often have trouble > hearing the difference between certain sounds, in which case I repeat > the words, exaggerating the vowel sounds (and then, without fail, at > least half the class tries to imitate me). If nothing else, it at > least opens their eyes to the fact that there are vowel sounds in > English that don't exist in Hebrew. > > My Russian speakers seem to have fewer difficulties with this than > Hebrew speakers. Apparently, there are many more vowel sounds in > Russian than in Hebrew. > > Bari -------------------------------------------- Visit the ETNI site - http://www.etni.org Send a message to the ETNI list: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Send queries and questions to: ask@xxxxxxxx --------------------------------------------